Dilip Venkatraman appointed CEO of CNN-IBN

To drive the next level of growth for India?s No.1 English News Channel

N. Dilip Venkatraman, CMO, CNN-IBN, IBN7, IBN-Lokmat & COO, IBN Focus, has been assigned the mandate to lead Network18's English News Channel, CNN-IBN as CEO, with immediate effect. In his new role, Venkatraman will be responsible for the strategic, financial and operational management of India’s No.1 English News Channel. Earlier, he was leading marketing operations for all existing and upcoming IBN channels and managing IBN Focus, the alternative media solutions unit for the channels. Apart from his leadership role in building CNN-IBN, IBN7 & IBN-Lokmat into the country’s leading news brands, Venkatraman is known for conceptualizing benchmark properties at the Network including CNN-IBN Indian of the Year, Real Heroes, IBN7 Diamond States Awards, Citizen Journalist Awards and IBN7 Super Idols.

Venkatraman has over 19 years of corporate experience and prior to joining Network18, he held leadership positions at the India Today Group and Zee Network. Winner of the ‘Indian Marketing Award’, Venkatraman is a graduate in public administration and holds management qualifications from IIM Bangalore and Harvard Business School.

Speaking on this development, B.Saikumar, Group COO, Network18 commented "We believe that the English news market is poised for tremendous growth and CNN IBN would be best placed to lead this emerging trend. In Dilip, we entrust the responsibility of managing this growth, ensuring sustained profitability and leading the drive to further enhance the brand’s equity and audience franchise”

On this occasion, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-In-Chief, CNN-IBN, IBN7, IBN-Lokmat said “Dilip has been a core member of the team instrumental in building the IBN news network into a leadership position, beginning with the launch of CNN-IBN in 2005. His remarkable success in communicating our values of inclusive journalism has helped us grow CNN-IBN into a clear leader in English news and ensured that CNN-IBN, IBN 7 & IBN Lokmat evolve into the stellar editorial brands that they are today and we’re confident that he’ll continue to contribute immensely in the next level of growth for CNN-IBN”

Dilip Venkatraman added "I believe that, right from the outset, CNN-IBN has set the agenda for news in the country with its unique brand of inclusive and passionate journalism which has inturn powered its growth. I hope to work closely with team CNN-IBN to further strengthen our editorial and market leadership”

About Network18 Group:
Network18[BSE: 532798,NSE: Network18] is one of India's leading full play media conglomerates with interests in television, print, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content and allied businesses.  Through its holding in Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV18) [BSE: 532299, NSE: TV-18], Network18 operates India’s leading business news television channels, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz.  It also runs one of India’s largest Internet players - Web18, as well as one of India’s leading real time financial information and news terminals - Newswire18. TV18 has expanded into print with Infomedia18, an entity following the acquisition of Infomedia, India's leading player in the special interest publishing and printing operations space. Through its holding in ibn18 Broadcast Ltd (ibn18) [BSE: 532800,NSE: ibn18], Network18 operates in the general news and entertainment space with leading general news channels CNN-IBN and IBN7 and has launched IBN-Lokmat, a Marathi news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group. ibn18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18 which houses the MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon channels in India - as also Studio18, the Group’s filmed entertainment operation and ‘Colors’, the country’s leading Hindi general entertainment channel.  Additionally, Network18 holds the Group’s online & on-air home shopping venture, HomeShop18, its full spectrum events management venture, E18 and its sports management & marketing division, Sport18.The group recently launched Forbes India, the nation's first local edition of a foreign news magazine title and the world’s most influential business brand, in collaboration with Forbes Media.  In a pioneering foray into television distribution, the group has recently announced a strategic alliance with Sun Group, SUN18, the first truly Pan-India distribution company and slated to be one of the biggest distribution entities in the market. For more information, log on to www.network18online.com